Nice looking, notch-based full screen design, that is in trend these days following the launch of the iPhone X

The fingerprint sensor at the back is quick and accurate, and face unlock also works quickly

The phone’s tall 6.23-inch LCD IPS display with full HD+ resolution is sharp and impressive

The Oppo F7 uses the company’s Color OS user interface, on top of Android - it’s a reasonably good single-layered UI with a heavy focus on visuals and apps built by Oppo

Good speed/performance - the phone handles both basic use, and graphic-intensive games fairly well, and you will get a clean, lag-free experience

Good rear and front cameras - pictures taken with the Oppo F7 are surprisingly good for the price of the phone, despite not having as many sensors as you’d expect from smartphones these days - the single-camera setup on either side might come across as inadequate, but the camera makes up for this with its AI chops - pictures are generally well composed and look good, with accurate colors and sharp contrast where needed

The AI abilities are really put to work in getting the depth-effect and vivid-mode shots - despite the single-camera setup, portrait shots with the front camera are excellent, getting colors, depth-effect and boundaries fairly accurately - the rear-camera’s portrait mode is decent too

Overall, the camera capabilities are on par with the very good cameras on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro, and the Vivo V9 - which are also likely to be the Oppo F7's main competitors

Battery life is good as well, with the phone comfortably running for a full day on a single charge with moderate use

On the whole, the Oppo F7 is a good choice for a stylish looking device that takes especially good selfies - it also has a slight edge over its main competitor, the Vivo V9 in terms of performance, overall camera quality, and battery life (though in terms of design and build quality, the Vivo V9 is ahead)

Beautiful, elegant notch-based full screen design (that is clearly inspired from the iPhone X) - the device feels slick in the hand, with subtle curves on the back - and it looks great

In terms of the ease of using the one-handed, the Vivo V9 actually goes one up on the iPhone X - it packs a bigger screen (6.2 inches) - and is still feels incredibly easy to use with one hand

Fast fingerprint sensor

Facial recognition to unlock works very well too

The tall 19:9 display is bright and vibrant, and ticks all the right boxes

Vivo's custom Android UI (Funtouch) is very inspired from iOS too - it works decently well, although a lot of Android users do tend to prefer close-to-stock Android UIs

The UI also brings in a new gesture based navigation system, that operates without buttons (a la iPhone X), and thus gives you even more screen real estate to play with - the system itself is not too difficult to get a hang of - so it works out pretty well - and makes navigation on the V9 feel more 2018 than getting around on, say, a Samsung Galaxy S9 with its standard touch buttons

Decent set of rear and front cameras, especially in daylight - colors are accurate, dynamic range is slightly above average, and the camera focuses relatively fast - of course, photo quality falls quite a bit short when compared to an iPhone X or Galaxy S9 - but for the price range, it's decent

Decent battery life - will last the day with moderate use

Dedicated Dual SIM and MicroSD card slots

On the whole, the Vivo V9 is an all-round good device in this price range - especially for people who are more interested in a great design, great screen, and decent cameras - at the cost of a little bit of raw performance power

2-minute Review [Negatives]

The phone is primarily built of plastic, and the build quality could have been better at this price point

There is no fast charging tech, so charging the Oppo F7 will take a while – about two hours (or a little more) to fully top up the battery with a regular charger

Charging and data transfers use a micro-USB port, which is a little old school in this age where even budget devices are going to USB Type-C way

The Funtouch Android UI continues to come pre-installed with about six or seven bloatware apps - which could have been avoided

While the performance is good in regular use, the Snapdragon 626 chipset inside is not the best of the pack in this price bracket

Doesn't support the modern USB-C port

Expert Reviews

Between this and the Vivo V9, we’d recommend the Oppo F7 as it is better in terms of battery life, camera quality, and CPU performance